"Ralph?" I said breathlessly and concern flooded my mind. I couldn't believe it. This couldn't be him... He was dressed head to toe in black and bore a red stripe across his shoulders, the suit wasn't half bad, way better than his current one. But what made my heart skip a beat was the blood red band hugging his left arm.
This wasn't Dibny.
A wicked smirk crossed his lips, which, I noticed, were too identical to the ones I've met. Almost instinctively I looked into his eyes, but unlike the lips, they were colder and darker than the ones I knew.
He looked at me crookedly and I could sense that he knew me, somehow, someway. He inched forward and Iris got up to her feet and sent me a look. She slowly bent down and picked up one of the broken legs from the table I hit. For a brief second, I had the urge to stop her, as if this was the Dibny I cared about.
When I looked back at him he hadn't even acknowledged or cared about Iris's actions, his foreign eyes were dead set on me. A nervous lump formed in my throat.
Without warning or sound, he extended his arm and latched onto my wrist, gripping it tightly and wrongfully. I instinctively attempted to snap my arm away from him but unlike Dibny, this villain was trained and way stronger... Deadlier even.
He easily pulled me towards him and I heard Iris call out my name. "I'll be fine," I responded unsurely.
He finally spoke in a harsh low tone though I knew Iris could hear him, "I presume you are this earth's, Willow Blake?"
"Yeah, why do you care?" I said surprisingly confidently even though I could feel the inevitable fear building up inside of me.
He looked me up and down sickly and under his eerie gaze, I felt like hiding.
"Pitiful," he said simply and I couldn't stop my scowl. With my free hand, I brutally and uncontrollably slapped him. My breath hitched in my throat and I froze. He calmly turned his head back to me and he, steaming with shock, felt his already bruising cheek.
He erratically let go of my hand and slammed me into the church's wall, holding me above the ground, hands clasped around my neck. I gasped for air and tried disparity to pry his hands from me but I had no luck.
He smiled devilishly and yelled, "You have nothing to offer, can't even defend yourself with any abilities. The truest Blake resides on our earth and can bend reality to her will! She is undefeated in war and holds one of the highest honours in our Führer's army. You are a disgrace to her name."
Tears started to blur my vision and I still couldn't feel the relief of air filing my lunges. All I could do was open my mouth and pray for oxygen to once again return.
Just breathe.
Breathe.
Please.
I felt tired and began to give up in my fight and struggle for life. My arms fell limp and the world grew darker and much quieter. My eyelids grew heavy and everything became a blur of colour, like a painting left out in the rain.
This was the end of the line. And all I could see was his dark eyes staring into mine.
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Turns out, death doesn't come that easily.
Life is harder. More painful.
Pain. That's all I felt. Everything was screaming out in dispiration to ever so kindly let me know that I was injured. I didn't want to open my eyes, I was afraid of what I might see.
Through the pain, I could barely make out a rough and foreign voice say, "She's awake."
"How do you know?" someone responded.
"There's a change in her heartbeat," a rough male voice answered.
I didn't want to move, or talk, or see. I knew that if I did any movement my heart would explode. Not literally... hopefully.
There was shuffling around me and I languidly cracked the seal over my eyes, and holy shit was it bright. My eyes fluttered and tried to adjust to the vibrancy surrounding me.
"Pupils are responsive," a fairly familiar female voice echoed and the bright flashes of light became less frequent till they eventually stopped. I squinted and made out several blurred figures surrounding me and my eyes darted around trying to figure out where I was.
"It's okay, Willow. You're at S.T.A.R. labs," the female spoke and I realized that her voice belonged to Caitlyn. It was Caitlyn. Thank god.
I tried to speak but as I opened my mouth tremendous pain erupted through me from my throat and instead, a croaked outcry escaped along with more agony.
"No, no, no," she stammered, "don't try and talk."
Now that my eyes had adjusted to the light I tried to look around the room without moving my head, I could feel a brace wrapped around my neck. Most of the team surrounded me, including some
of the attenders to the wedding, they all stood with varying solemn faces displayed. I found my self fearing to see Ralph's.
Iris came up beside me, "Hey..." she started. I mouthed the words, 'what happened'.
Lucky, she understood, "Dibny... I guess not the real Dibny, had you on your last breath before I made it over to you guys. The first hit I had on him did nothing but he was so preoccupied with you I got a final blow to his head," she informed then continued, "You got lucky. He's down in the pipeline with another guy we captured."
I saw some tears start to swell in her eyes and I touched her hand comfortingly. I was going to be okay. I took a deep breath I managed to turn my head to my right, clenching my teeth. My eyes widened when I saw Cisco laying across the room unconscious.
Caitlyn saw my expression and told me that he was alright but he did receive a concussion.
I heard yelling outside the med-bay and my eyes shot to the door. I really wanted to sit up but I could tell that wasn't a good idea. The shouting grew louder and I tried to recall those voices. Caitlyn went to the door to see what all the commotion was about.
The moment she opened the door I could tell she regretted it for two individuals burst through the opening. Ralph was cursing at Barry and trying to fight his way through.
My heart sank at the sight of him, it was almost terrifying. The way he looked now, as he was angry, I couldn't tell if this was the real Dibny or the one who tried to kill me.
He finally pushed past Allen and came to a halt when he saw me. His whole angry facade melted away and he stopped fighting. Barry briefly looked at me and then back to Ralph, he said in a lower voice, "Ralph," he paused and glanced at me again, "she probably doesn't want to see you right now." I could tell immediately what he was trying to hide. He didn't want Dibny to know it was 'him' who did this.
"That's what I don't understand. WHY!" he shouted the last part. Barry sighed and looked over at me, searching for my opinion.
He should know.
Sooner rather than later.
I nodded. His eyes looked down briefly, then he spoke, "Ralph... A version of you did this. Someone that looked identical and sounded the same confronted them when they tried to escape from the fight. Don't worry though Iris was able to step in before any real bad damage could be done."
He swallowed and tried to keep his composure, "Did you get him?"
"Yeah, he's down in the pipeline."
Something lit up in his eyes, I could tell what he was about to do.
"N-no," I croaked out and swallowed the pain. Both their eyes shot to me and Ralph strode over and took my hand in his.
"Can you give me a second," he requested turning his head to Barry.
"Yeah," he looked back one last time before leaving the room, shutting the door behind him.
I knew I couldn't talk to him with the barrier of pain. I took a deep breath and slightly twisted my hand. On the other half of my bedside, a perfectly healthy Willow appeared, standing tall and with confidence.
"Don't do what you're thinking," she instantly spoke and Dibny's eyes trailed from me to her.
"I have to," he simply replied and 'Willow' place her hand on his shoulder.
"No, you don't," I thought her saying and she did. "We need him in order to find out who he is and where he's from."
He didn't pray his eyes from my own while he spoke, his composer was crumbling to dust, "I'm so, so sorry," he broke eye contact and observed my injuries.
"It wasn't you," she said sadly. "This wasn't the Ralph Dibny I know."
He remained quiet and his eyes fell to the floor.
"I'll be ok."
"Only because Iris was there," he replied raising his voice slightly.
"Yes but-"
"Why didn't you use your powers?" he cursed.
"Iris-"
"You could've died!" he finally drew his eyes from the floor and stared into mine, I noticed that he was on the brink of tears.
My expression fell solum because I know he was right.
"Willow, this secret... this lie, keeping it from the team, this should never cause conflict with your life," he spoke carefully and meaningfully.
I couldn't respond, his words forcing me into silence. I didn't know how to respond.
He stood up to leave and the illusion moved to stop him by appearing in front of the exit.
"Wait-"
"I can't be a part of something that puts your life on the line," he said simply and walked through the illusion, breaking my only way to communicate with him.
He strode to the doorway and paused, he glanced back at me and added, "I care about you too much to do that," and he left.
I could feel my heart clench at the sight of his figure walking away, my eyes swelled up and tears started to line my vision.
He was right. He was so stupidly completely right.
There was a knock on the door and I quickly whipped away the pain from my face and took a deep breath.
As an instinct I tried to reply with 'come in' but it instead came out as a painful groan.
Ralph didn't do this... this was my fault.
I assumed the person on the other side of the door took my cry as a 'please come in' because the door opened and Iris stepped through.
I knew what I had to do.
Clenching my teeth, I pushed on the stiff hospital-like bed and sat up with a series of grunts. Iris rushed over to help.
"No, nope I wouldn't do that."
"I- I have... to," I croaked out.
"Hey it's ok Willow, you don't."
"I do!" I tried to shout but instead, a cry escaped from my lips.
She stood at my bedside and tried to come me down, at least I actually made it to a sitting up position.
I knew I had to talk to her, yet the pain was unimaginable to deal with. Scanning the room I knew what I was looking for, a pen and paper. Lucky for me, on the other side next to a computer there was.
I pointed to it and Iris retrieved it, placing it in my hand.
"I haven't been completely honest with you these last couple months," I wrote and stared into her eyes sadly.
"What? What do you mean?"
I took a deep breath. Here's goes everything. "Before I say what I did, I want you to know that I was scared. Scared out of my mind. And I didn't think I could trust anyone, till today," I continued and handed it to her. It's time that the person that saved my life knew who she had saved.
"It's okay, you can tell me anything. You know that," she tried to stay optimistic though I could see that deep down she was worried.
"You know bus 405? I lied, I was on it," I wrote slower this time, more nervous.
She double checked what she was reading then her eyes focused on me. "I don't... I don't understand," she stuttered out.
I took another deep breath, I could never explain this properly. I had to show her.
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I feel bad about leaving it there, but oh well. I really wanted to get this chapter out and it was getting a little long so I cut it off there and saved the rest for the next one.
There will be a bit more updates this holiday season since school is out so get ready for that :)